Dwight Correctional Center

Dwight, Ill. Opened 1930 Capacity: 400 Inmates: 400 females

Dear Kitsi,

I know you will write the book and I know some people will listen to you--but I just hope you can make them feel prison from the inside. I hope you can make them feel how the time ticks away on you here and how no matter how hard you try to maintain yourself and some degree of independence and self-respect, the daily process eats away your spirit. I have always thought of myself as a pretty strong and open woman, but this joint has taken some of my gentleness, some of my womanhood. Kitsi, I'm not the same warm person I remember myself to be. I find myself withdrawing from people in here--and even though I know it's a natural reaction, I know it will affect the way I relate to people, especially my own children, outside. I feel the walls around me all the time. And I'm afraid I'll carry them outside with me when I leave. Do you think I'll be able to be a good mother when I get my children back? I worry, I worry more than I should when I can't do anything about it.

--Kathryn Watterson

Burkhart, letter from an

inmate in Women in Prison

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